Unique Visitors, Visits, and customer behavior

Adobe Analytics uses browser cookies to identify unique visitors, and timestamps to identify visits. Some actions a visitor to your site can affect visit/unique visitor counting; others do not.

Note:

The following list assumes cross-device visitor identification is not used, which can link visitors based on a unique identifier set on your organization's site.

Behavior that affects visit count

Visits are typically consecutive page views that occur within 30 minutes of each other. These consecutive hits must use the same unique visitor identifier, set in the visitor's browser. If a visitor to your site performs any of these actions, a new visit starts:

Clears their cache mid-session and continues browsing your site

Leaves your site open in a tab for longer than 30 minutes, then continues browsing

Opens a different browser and navigates to your site on the same computer

The same person browsing your site on different devices

If a visitor to your site performs any of these actions, a new visit does NOT start. These points apply as long as image requests sent to Adobe's servers occur within 30 minutes of each other:

Closes their browser and navigates to your site again in the same browser

Restarts their computer, opens the same browser, and navigates to your site again

Transitions to a different network, such as disconnecting from a wired network docking station to a wireless network

Behavior that affects unique visitor count

Unique visitor identifiers are stored in a browser cookie. These cookies have an expiration of about five years, longer than any cookies reasonably last. If a visitor to your site performs any of these actions, a new unique visitor is counted:

Clears their cache at any time

Opens a different browser on the same computer. One unique visitor is counted per browser.

The same person browsing your site on different devices. A separate unique visitor is counted across each device.

Opens a private browsing session (such as Chrome's Incognito tab)

If a visitor to your site performs any of these actions, it is considered the same unique visitor, as long as the cookie identifier is preserved:

Closes their browser for an extended period

Upgrades their browser to the latest version

Testing visitor behavior

If you have any concerns or questions as to what constitutes a new visit or unique visitor, you can create your own testing environment:

Create a report suite within Adobe Analytics' Admin Tools

Create a blank HTML page with AppMeasurement code implemented

Navigate to the web page, exhibiting the behavior you want to observe (such as leaving the site inactive for a time, or restarting your computer).

Wait at least 60 minutes for the visit to finish processing

Navigate to a report in Adobe Analytics using Visits and Unique Visitors as a metric

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